If your holiday season is anything like ours, you’ll be on the go from event to party to family gatherings all month long. All that hustle and bustle often means bringing food along to feed your hungry kiddos or snacking in the car from stop to stop.
With a picky non-vegetable eater in the house (a fruitatarian as we like to call him) we have recently taken to 007 methods to incorporating veggies of any sort into his diet. That most recently has meant blending up our own smoothies with various leafy greens like spinach and kale with berries, yogurt, and honey. He drinks them like a champ but we were left with the dilemma of how to take them with us. Until we discovered BooginHead Squeez’Ems and Pack’Ems.
What We Love: These reusable, squeezable, fillable, Squeez’Ems pouches have been perfect for us. The body is all one piece with a lid that simply locks in place to keep all the liquids where they should be, and a twist off cap allows us to store and transport without fear of spilling. We prepare our smoothies, fill our Squeeze’Ems and store in the fridge until needed. Then we just grab and go. It really can’t get much simpler than that. We’ve taken them on trips and also just used them around the house, and we love them. They’re sturdy enough to withstand a toddler’s not-so-gentle touch, top shelf of the dishwasher (bonus!), the freezer, and microwave (we haven’t needed to test yet). Yet, also small and compact to store easily and slide into the pocket of a diaper bag or backpack. They’re BPA, PVC, and phthalate free and super easy to use. We have been thrilled with ours and plan to continue using for some time to come. Plus, our little guy has really enjoyed eating from them, almost like a game.
The Pack’Ems have been just as convenient and helpful in carrying food to go. We’ve used mostly dry products like crackers, cereal, etc. But they’re hearty enough to handle berries or fruit as well. They use Velcro® Brand PRESS-LOK™ technology which we’ve found to be just as quality as Ziplock brand. In fact they seal with a noticeable grip when you close them. The bottoms expand so they actually stand on their own as you’re filling, which is handy when pouring items out of a box or when needing two hands to sort for picky eaters like ours. The bags come in two sizes which we found to hold sufficient amount of food for our toddler. Not sure how they’d work for a hungrier youngster or teen, but I’m sure they’d work just fine. Also BPA, PVC, and phthalate free, they’re top rack of the dishwasher safe and of course keep you from having to buy Ziplock bags over and over for just one time use.
Our Challenges: The Squeez’Ems have held up fantastically well for us and we’ve seen very little wear and tear. The only issue we’ve seen is our guy can’t always get all the contents out. The top portion of the pouch can get sucked up toward the spout and prevent the rest of the contents from making it out. Although some of that may be due to his age and not understanding to tip the pouch upside down and let some of it “fall” rather than trying to suck it all out. Overall, we’ve been VERY pleased with the BooginHead Squeez’Ems.
The initial investment for the Pack’Ems is a bit steep at $9.99 for two bags (one of each size) so be ready for that. But afterword you can immediately start to recoup that cost the first time your rinse them out and get a second (third, fourth, and so on) use out of them. We’ve used the Velcro seal repeatedly and so far have held up well. Though I’m not exactly sure how many uses you can get before they start to loosen up a bit. As long as you check the seal every once and a while, you should be good to go. Consider these products as must haves for your on-the-go kids.
Disclosure: BooginHead provided the products to facilitate this review but as always all thoughts and opinions are strictly our own.
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